To make reservations for recording on a videotape recorder, it has been necessary for the user to check a program table for the broadcasting date, channel, day of the week, and broadcasting start and end times of the program the user wants to record, and enter those pieces of information by operating the keys on the remote control of the videotape recorder. Therefore, the input operation has been troublesome, and everybody has not been able to enter the data easily. Even a person skilled at operating the machine has sometime entered the data erroneously and found later that the desired program has not been recorded.
To overcome this problem, a method of making recording reservations easily using G codes has been used widely. A G code is a code obtained by encoding a channel, date, time, and duration and compressing the coded data as shown in, for example W090/07844. With the method, the user checks a program table for the G code for the program the user wants to record, enters the G code by operating the numerical keys on the remote control, and transfers it to the videotape recorder. Then, the channel, date, day of the week, start and end times are automatically set, so the user will make fewer mistakes in input operation and reduce the number of failures in making reservations for recording.
With the method of making reservations for programs using G codes, however, the user has to enter a G code in many figures, seeing the program table, by operating the small keys on the remote control device, which makes the operation troublesome. Even if the user enters only one figure in the number erroneously, an error will result, so the user has to operate the keys again correctly. Alternatively, a different program corresponding to the wrong G code will be registered, so the user has to verify the reserved result. It is quite a burden to enter the G code correctly by operating the keys on the remote control at hand, seeing the G codes printed in small type on the program table in a newspaper. Even a person skilled in key operation may make a mistake. The conventional remote control systems have not been easy to use for the aged who are unaccustomed to operating video apparatus.
In recent days, FM broadcast has been multiplexed with the titles of musical compositions, weather forecast, traffic information, news, etc. and then the multiplexed data is broadcast, as disclosed in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 6-311060. It can be considered that other various types of information are transmitted through the FM multiplex broadcasting system.